Yee Huang, policy Aanalyst with the Center for Progressive Reform, spoke during a special lunch presentation at the PIEC.

The idea of environmental protection often conjures up thoughts of faraway places, most of which we’ve never seen. Whether it’s ice caps, rainforests, or the middle of the ocean, we don’t think of the issue as being close by or tangible. Even the Everglades are hundreds of miles away. But there is much to be done for the environment, and much happening, in our own neighborhoods. This created the focus of the 16th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference, titled “Bringing It All Back Home: Leadership, Land Use, and Locanomics.”

The conference, held Feb. 25-27, kicked off with an opening speech by Julian Juergensmeyer, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law, and professor emeritus at UF.

On Friday, several conferences were held, each covering a different subject, and each chaired with a panel of noted experts from around the country. Each panel not only discussed current challenges, but also ways to address them.

Critics of environmental advocates sometimes argue that these attempted solutions are impractical, but conference co-chair Zach Broome said that special attention was paid to ensure that these were realistic measures that were being discussed. “This year, especially, we wanted to go with very practical solutions,” Broome said. “While some of the ideas may be a little novel or unusual, they’re definitely not merely idealistic.”

By Saturday, conference-goers had been privy to a wealth of information of the problems facing the environment, methods that are being used to solve those problems, and some innovative ideas that have yet to be implemented. But for any change to take place, people need to step up and take the reins. With that in mind, the last event before the closing remarks was a workshop on the next generation of environmental leadership.

Mother Nature wasn’t being very cooperative, making Saturday a rainy and cool day, but that did not keep conference-goers away. Every seat was filled as the workshop began with a video of UF Law students asking questions to former Senator and Governor Bob Graham. Graham didn’t mince words about what he thinks Florida needs. “From the tip of the panhandle to the Florida Keys, we need leadership,” he said.

Not only does the state need leadership, he said, but it needs participation in government and society, especially from young adults. Voting and other signs of participation have been declining in worrying numbers, Graham said. “One of the keys to the future of our robust democracy is for your generation to reverse this.”

After the video concluded, the conference attendees were introduced to a panel of experts, who ranged from members of public boards to those who worked in the private sector. Discussion ranged from the confines imparted by the Sunshine open records laws to Florida’s place as 47th in terms of active citizenship. But throughout the workshop the message was clear: the solutions to our problems are out there, but Florida needs leadership.

And while the conference was attended by a crowd that devotes much of their personal and/or professional life to dealing with matters that confront the environment, Broome said that those credentials aren’t a requirement to bettering your surroundings or getting involved. “You don’t have to be a public interest environmental advocate to do things that are environmentally practical or beneficial.”

UF students, faculty and staff who want to be part of the solution to Florida’s environmental challenges but don’t know where to begin can start by attending the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s 16th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference Feb. 25-27.

New and longtime environmental advocates and legal professionals are invited to attend the two-day conference titled, “Bringing it All Back Home: Leadership, Land Use and Local-nomics.” The event, to be held in UF Law’s Holland Hall, will emphasize the power of local environmental leadership, the potential of innovative local land-use tools and the promise of place-based economics and agriculture. Paid participants can earn CLEs while interacting with legal experts, environmental writers, and wildlife and ecology scientists during panel discussions and two workshops.

“With this conference, we wanted to bring environmental responsibility back to the local scale while incorporating the realities of modern society,” said Zach Broome, a second-year UF law student and co-chair of PIEC 2010. “We also wanted to make environmental responsibility something viable for attorneys outside the land use or environmental fields, which is why we have a panel on professional responsibility and two workshops on the ethical and legal approach to development.”

The first workshop on Saturday, Feb. 27, is titled, “The Rezoning and Development Order Approval Process.” This workshop will benefit those interested in learning how Florida’s land-use laws are applied and how to effectively participate in the process from a citizen and public-interest perspective. The following workshop, “Cultivating the Next Generation of Environmental Leadership,” will provide tips and advice on how to be an effective board member and how to assume leadership roles. This workshop will also address the impact of technology and the generational differences in leading effectively.

In addition to the panel discussions and workshops, there will be two distinguished keynote speakers. Julian Juergensmeyer, the Ben F. Johnson Jr. Chair in Law at Georgia State University College of Law and co-director of the GSU Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth, will give the keynote address Thursday night during the opening reception. The title of his presentation is, “Bringing It All Back Home: Where the Wild Things Are!”

“During my presentation, I will outline two main ideas,” Juergensmeyer said. “First, that current problems (energy and resource shortages, climate change and economic uncertainties) require land-use planners and regulators to consider wild ideas. Second, that wild ideas are best tried and tested on a small scale at the local level. After developing these ideas I will attempt examples of some of the wild ideas that may not be so wild after all.”

Bill Belleville, a Sanford, Fla., resident who is a documentary filmmaker and award-winning environmental author, will give the keynote address during the Friday night banquet. Bellville’s books include River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida’s St. John’s River and Losing it all to Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape.

The conference is free for UF students, faculty and staff. A discounted registration of $15 is available for non-UF students.